


Rites of Spring

by inlovewithnight



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-05
Updated: 2010-06-05
Packaged: 2017-10-09 22:32:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/92305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inlovewithnight/pseuds/inlovewithnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spring, and a young Fire Lord's thoughts turn to frogs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rites of Spring

  
Over the years, Uncle had given any number of lectures on meditation and its benefits, the joy of finding an inner place of peace and stillness where all anger and annoyances would simply melt away.  
Sometimes Zuko wishes he had paid attention to any of them.  
"It's an ancient ritual," he says for the third time, fighting the urge to tell Aang to _sit down already_. The private office of the Fire Lord is full of ancient, priceless art. Some of it's so delicate it might crumble into dust at a touch. Zuko doesn't even use this office for his day-to-day work, he's so scared of the art. He had the staff set up a desk for him in an alcove down the hallway, behind one of the wall hangings.  
It would be disgraceful to recieve the Avatar in an alcove, though. So here they are. And Aang keeps _wandering_.  
"Oh, man," Aang says sympathetically. "Ancient rituals get old _fast_. Ha! Get it? Ancient? Old?"  
Zuko stares at him.  
"You're not doing so good with that whole 'lightening up' thing we talked about, Zuko."  
"I don't have time to lighten up. I have an ancient ritual to perform. And the Fire Nation doesn't have a lot of ancient rituals left, because my father and my grandfather abolished most of them, so I need to get this one right."  
"It would be bad to contribute to the cultural death of your people," Aang says thoughtfully.  
"It would be _devastating_." Zuko very badly wants to fling himself into a chair and despair properly, but the chairs are all priceless antiques. "And the Green Island would be overrun with frogs."  
Aang blinks. "What?"  
"That's the ritual. Banishing the frogs from Green Island."  
"How many frogs?"  
"Hundreds. Possibly thousands. Nobody _counts_ them, the Fire Lord just has to banish them at the first spring moon."  
"How do you banish frogs?"  
Zuko glares at him, and then looks out the window. He suddenly feels like he doesn't want to be looking directly at anybody when he says this. "There's a speech. And some ritualized movements."  
"Is it like a dance?"  
"Yes," Zuko mutters. "It's like a dance."  
"You're a great dancer, Zuko."  
He looks at Aang out of the corner of his eye. "There's a hat, too."  
Aang looks wistful. "I wish being the Avatar came with more hats."  
"And then I do a little bit of firebending, and the frogs all run into the sea."  
"That sounds great."  
Zuko nods a little. "It was my favorite festival when I was little. There's this frog-shaped candy. It's delicious. Good for sore throats, too."  
"Sucking on a frog will cure what ails you," Aang agrees.  
Zuko stares bleakly out the window. "I'm afraid that I won't be able to perform the ritual as skilfully as my father. I don't even really understand why it works. Frogs don't have ears, and they're very small. How can the ones in the back even see the hat and the dancing?"  
"Spirit magic is funny that way." Aang bounces up and down gleefully. "Come on, let's go find a swamp and you can practice."  
"We're a little light on swamps around here."  
"Appa will find us one!" Aang flings the door open. Zuko winces as one of the priceless carvings rattles on its stand. "Sifu hotman, fetch me my sky bison, if you would be so kind?"  
Zuko sighs. The sifu hotman thing again. He's already figured out that it's going to be easier to bring that back into fashion than it would be to get Aang to stop saying it. It's on his official Fire Lord to-do list, right after repainting his alcove and banishing these stupid frogs.


End file.
